Press bias

TIGER OR PUSSYCAT?-- Should the press have been more diligent in warning of the economic meltdown of the last decade? Our correspondent across the pond wondered whether the media failed in its duty to warn of coming problems. He notes that there were sufficient warning signs of the looming disaster for the press to pick up and report.

He writes: "I remember there were a few reports of that nature, but the politicians and bankers and property developers dismissed these reports as meaningless.
"Someone even coined the term 'Celtic Tiger' to describe the Irish economy. For some reason those members of the press who read the signs correctly were not broadly published or believed.
"I know the press can be like a dog with a bone and work away on
something until all is revealed; one of the most famous cases is Watergate.
"Should the press simply be an observer, or should it also take on the role of watchdog?"

Here's my response:

To me, the press is both observer and watchdog. Your analogy of a dog after a bone is apt; I've used it myself, with the scenario being that a dog sniffs a bone somewhere and keeps digging until he finds it.
The problem with economic and business news is that many reporters think it's too hard, so they don't do it. They think the "real news" is on Page One, and those are the stories worth pursuing. I encountered that attitude more than once at the paper where I worked, with some very good reporters claiming that business news was "too hard." My response was that quite often, stories would appear on the biz page weeks and months before these stories would be "discovered" by the Page One crew. The same attitude was held by senior editors. Soon after I started on the biz desk, a story about real estate (my beat at the time) cropped up, and the managing editor wanted to give it to one of the general assignment reporters because it was a Page One story. Fortunately, the editor in chief, overruled the managing editor, saying that the story should be given to the reporter who knows the field best.
Another claim was that the style of writing for Page One stories was somehow "different" from business and economic stories, and required a different skill set. This, of course, is nonsense. Good writing is good writing.

Opinion

PRIORITIES -- Rick Santorum said today that he believes in "free-market health care, not government-run health care." The view from here is that health care is too important to be left to the free market. There are many other things that are also too important to be left to the free market, among them roads and bridges; sanitation; law enforcement, policing and court systems; fire protection; environmental protection, and military defense. Many hospitals began as nonprofit facilities run by local volunteer or religious groups. However, many have been taken over by corporate-owned health systems, which are profit-oriented. Is the level of care any better? That's an open question.

REMAINDER -- The staff reviewer for an NBC morning talk show noted that the audience for the new film, The Hunger Games, was 50 percent women and 40 percent men. We wondered who were in the remaining 10 percent. Trolls, perhaps?

Trivial arts

BACK TO BASICS -- A thorough education used to be considered a solid knowledge of the Seven Liberal Arts: Grammar, Logic and Rhetoric (known as the Trivium), as well as Arithmetic, Music, Geometry and Astronomy (known as the quadrivium).


The first three yielded the term now called "trivial." But unlike its original meaning connoting "important, basic," the current meaning of "trivial" conveys a sense of little or no importance, and not worth spending time on. Consequently, the teaching of Grammar is ignored (by students, partly because their instructors don't understand it, either); Logic is offered largely to Philosophy majors in college or as an elective; and Rhetoric, the art of persuasion through well-constructed sentences, is dismissed as political or marketing gimmickry -- an attempt to get people to do something they don't want to do.


Of the remaining four, Arithmetic has been surrendered to the use of electronic calculators. Music is one of the first programs to fall victim to budget cuts, Geometry is victimized by rote and stultifying boredom, and Astronomy is limited to Boy Scout troops and university graduate specialists.


Rhetoric is not a dirty word. It is the ability to use Grammar (the relationships of words to each other), Syntax (the use of well-constructed sentences), and Logic (the arrangement of concepts and ideas) to prove or disprove something.


Success in writing depends on the appropriate use of "trivial" strategies.

Blissful

PAY ATTENTION -- The St. Patrick's Day Parade in Philadelphia stepped off with the TV announcer praising the bagpipe band as it played "a great Irish ditty." It was the Marine Corps Hymn, "From the Halls of Montezuma."


OUPS -- The Oxford University Press needs a few good copy editors. In its book, American Immigration, A Very Short Introduction, the text credited population growth in Europe during the 18th and early 19th centuries to better nutrition and better sanitation, which "brought down morality rates." Yup, that'll do it.


SPELLCHECK REDUX -- The OUP let through a reference to emigrants needing a visa from a "counselor" office. It's "consular." And the New York Times let an r escape though inattention to meanings.

Guest Watt?

PR PRATFALL -- The memo from the agency offered the exec's service as a "guess speaker." Presumably, there would be no advance notice of what the exec would have to say.


DOUBLING DOWN -- The same memo noted that the exec would be "travelling," making him available as a "guess speaker." Single L, please. The guideline is this: When the stress is on the last syllable, double the consonant before adding -ed or -ing. Examples: refer, referred; travel, traveling. Thanks to the Sichelman.


FROM THE K MAN ISLAND -- "We're having a debate about the use of a versus an when followed by a vowel or consonant." Why should this even be a question? Use an before a vowel sound, and a  before a consonant. Examples: An apple, a pear. And when the noun begins with an h, the usage will vary according to whether the h is silent. Examples: A hospital, a history, or an hour, an honorable deed. Note that the guideline is on vowel sound, not whether the letter is designated a consonant. Remember Diana Hacker's Writer's Reference manuals, the guidebooks you had to buy for Freshman Comp but never read? Get one, or Will Strunk's little book.


ACTIVE VS PASSIVE -- Avoid the phrase "is comprised of" for two reasons. One, it's the passive voice, which is not as powerful in writing as the active; and two, it's poor usage. "Comprise" is similar to "include," so you are in effect saying the group "is included of" several items.